Wednesday, 23 April 2014

A twist of date by Susan Hatler #5

Malanie Porter has been dumped, again. When others accuse her of 'being in love with being in love', she agrees to let her best friend, Patti, step in and direct her dating life.

Patti charts out a few rules and calls them 'the boyfriend bylaws'. Malanie has to adhere to 'em if she doesn't want to lose her Betty, the shiny convertible Beetle, and wants her love life to pep up.

Review:Previously titled as 'The boyfriend Bylaws', A twist of date is the fifth book in 'better date than never' series. Though a part of a series, it can be read as a standalone novella.

Main character/narrator is an adorable and beautiful Malanie who happens to be in love with the idea of being in love. She seems to make a prince out of every guy she meets, expecting long term commitment from them within a week. Idolizing a guy only blinds her from seeing his flaws and she ends with her heart broken each time.

The reason behind her desperate attempts to find true, everlasting love is she has had too many failed relationships and she has only ever loved one guy, Matt who is seemingly unattainable. Matt is that charming, player man who can't stick around with one woman for long. And at 27, Malanie can't afford casual flings.

So to suppress her true feelings for Matt, she looks to invest those overwhelming emotions into other guys. She also has a compulsive desire to prove she is nothing like her mother who loved and left.

I enjoyed the book a lot. The writing flows with ease from scene to scene and dialogues are crisp. Those roller coaster emotions the narrator feels are well painted with words.

Climax of the story was predictable but not dull. Ending could have been a little more elaborate.

The thing that prodded me was the sisters mended the bridges too abruptly. From the start, we are made to believe Malanie's step sister is an epitome of perfection and that they both don't get along too well. But at the end with sharing one secret they suddenly cry in each others arms and profess their sisterly love.

Matt's character is easily likable. Malanie feels real and has our sympathy till the end.

Random thoughts:I downloaded this book on Kindle primarily because it was free and I wanted to read a quick, light chic lit. But Susan Hatler, must i say, was a pleasant discovery and I'm planning to buy other books by her in the series.